Thursday, August 27, 2009

Frugal and Green tip #2 Hang your clothes

Simple huh? People have been drying their clothes like this forever. Many of us have memories of clotheslines in the backyard. But first why should I do this? According to this site it costs almost $14 per 8 loads of laundry dried. That adds up quickly. I found on Wikipedia that for every use it means 4.4 lbs or 2kg of carbon.

Line drying your clothes has other benefits too. Your clothes will last longer. All that lint you've been removing is actually in large part your clothes. They shed part of their fibers every time you put them in the dryer, causing them to wear out faster.

Then there is the smell of your laundry. Instead of a chemically created smell of freshness, you can crawl between sheets that are truly fresh. The sun naturally kills all kinds of bacteria on our clothes as well.

So how do you do this? I know that in some places homeowners associations have banned clotheslines for aesthetic reasons. In my neighborhood, I'm free to do as I wish. In my case I have a line that consists of 2 T posts set in the ground with cement. The lines go from one to the other. You can also get an umbrella line that will swing up when not in use. If you don't want holes in the ground you can run a line from your home to a tree or another building such as a shed.

If you absolutely can't dry outside, no problem. Dry your laundry inside. Folding drying racks are inexpensive and can very often be found at yard sales. You can also hang your clothes on hangers and suspend them from your shower rod. In the winter it gets very cold here. The oil heat I have dries out the air badly. I put the drying rack by a heating vent to speed up the process. This also helps to humidify the air.

When I started to line dry I thought it would take a lot of time and be a major chore. In fact its been quite the opposite. The only increase in time is the few minutes it takes to actually hang the clothes. It really is only a few minutes and I find it quite relaxing. Taking things down takes no more time than pulling them out of the dryer.

It took me a bit to figure out how to hang everything in proper order. I find that grouping like items helps. I have also found that giving your laundry a quick snap before you hang it helps with wrinkles. If you are worried about those crunchy towels you can leave them out overnight. The dew works as a natural softener. Rain does the same thing.

7 comments:

I've put up a clothes line, but our clothes aren't as soft as when in the dryer.. (Can't put fabric softeners sheets on the clothes line..) My husband has even requested that I not dry his boxers on the line because they become uncomfortable.. Do you know a way to keep the clothes soft?

Kitty, I've heard that things often get crunchy from too much soap, so you could try reducing that. You can also use fabric softener in the wash, or better yet, vinegar. Vinegar works as a softener and removes excess soap as well. Let me know if you figure something out.

Oh! I have huge bottles of vinegar that I get at Sam's club.. I use it to wash my floors.. I'll do that with my next load.. With five people, I do laundry almost every day.. You wouldn't know how much vinegar I need to use, would you?

Nice blog. Vinager help keep the cloths soft. I use laundry drying racks year round. I have found the easiest way to keep them from not being stiff is to give them a healthy shake before putting them on the rack and another shake when taking them off. Also if you are replacing clothes look for polyesters they dry much faster and they do not get hard. Think how nice Polar Fleece drys...